Culdee Fell Railway
| Culdee Fell Mountain Railway | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Culdee Fell Railway (CFR) is a fictional narrow gauge rack and pinion railway appearing in the book Mountain Engines written by the Rev. W. Awdry. The stories are based on incidents in the history of the Snowdon Mountain Railway.
Awdry visited the Snowdon Mountain Railway (SMR) with his friend, the Rev. Teddy Boston, in early 1963. That summer he wrote a 2-part article about it in his series "Remarkable Railways", for the Church of England Newspaper. The Director of the SMR at the time, A.O.E. Davis, suggested that Awdry might like to include a similar railway on Sodor. Fortunately, a suitable mountain was already marked on the first published maps of Sodor, the 2046 ft-high Culdee Fell.
In the book, the Culdee Fell Railway runs from Kirk Machan, where it meets the standard gauge line from Killdane to Peel Godred, to the summit of Culdee Fell. Devil's Back is a high exposed ridge which the railway runs along, corresponding to Clogwyn of the real Snowdon Mountain Railway.
Although the railway has yet to appear in the television series, Blue Mountain Mystery marks the very first time the Culdee Fell Railway was mentioned in the series in a learning segment about the difference between standard gauge and narrow gauge engines. The video states that Mr. Percival, who is the controller of the Skarloey Railway in the TV series, is also in charge of the Culdee Fell Mountain Railway.
According to "research" by the Rev. W Awdry, the railway was the brainchild of the tourist-minded Mid Sodor Railway, who had hopes to extend their line beyond Peel Godred to Kirk Machan at the foot of Culdee Fell, where passengers could board a rack railway to the summit. Initial attempts to establish a company however were thwarted by Lord Peter Barrane, the local landowner – this gave the Skarloey Railway an opportunity to capitalize by running horse-and-trap services from their terminus to a point half-way up the mountain, allowing a shorter and quicker climb. When the situation began to drain tourist monies away from the central portion of the island, local opinion was able to force Lord Barrane's hand.
...
Wikipedia